Father's Office, Pub and Restaurant, Santa Monica, CA

Father's Office

1018 Montana Ave.

Santa Monica, CA 90403

(310) 393-BEER

GOOGLE MAP

I have been reading about this place like crazy, with a huge write up in both Los Angeles Magazine and also FOOD AND WINE magazine, and had been dying to try out this bastion of beer and burgers, which has won tons of award and accolades all over the place. This is one of the hippest places in town, and the line outside, and lack of parking add to that image. The place has a ton of beers on tap, with many obscure beers, as the owner/chef is trying to make beer the new wine. The place is tiny too, and you literally have to wait like a hawk to try and get a seat as soon as people get up, and then sneak in, and then you must order from the bar, and they will bring the food to your (though you get your drinks at the bar).

Now I really wanted to love this place, but I have to say I was a bit disappointed.

The beer was pretty damn good, but the place is beyond packed, and it is loud as can be in there, actually obscuring conversation. The menu is filled with beer, with only a very small section devoted to the food, and of course we all had to try the award winning Office Burger.

The Office Burger is made from Dry Aged Beef, and has caramelized onion, applewood bacon compote, gruyere, matag blue cheese and arugula on it, and it is absolutely huge, and for a bit more you can get fries with it, but instead we got one full order of fries and one order of sweat potato fries, both Al A Carte (literally in a small shopping cart). The fries were fantastic. The burger, not so fantastic. The burger is huge, almost the size of 2 burgers in fact, and it was cooked medium rare like I like it, and it is very, very flavorful, almost too flavorful. And I don't know which item on it did it, but it is really salty, I mean excessively salty, and the caramelized onions make it very sweet as well, so it has this strange salty sweet to it. And since you can't get ketchup, or any substitution, this is is how you are going to have it, and it is way too much. Most certainly not the best burger in the world, or the best in LA. In fact I think I could do better on a grill myself, and would rather chose my own toppings than have it be this salty!

The t-shirts for sale say it all, the logo is F.O.., which stands for Father's Office of FUCK OFF, and to me it stands for FUCK OFF! The place is nuts, and impossible to find a seat, and the food is way too strong, and you can't get anything but how the chef wants to do it. Kudos to him for having an ego, and pulling this place off, and opening another in Culver City, but I will never be returning here, as I was seriously not impressed!